


home is where the heart is

by aunt_zelda



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Codependency, F/M, Guilt, Sleepy Cuddles, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:42:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25399351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aunt_zelda/pseuds/aunt_zelda
Summary: Veth has been turned into a vampire. She's alone, but not for long.
Relationships: Nott | Veth Brenatto/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39
Collections: Multifandom Horror Exchange (2020)





	home is where the heart is

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Capitola](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capitola/gifts).



> ~ treat fic ~

Veth can’t go home. 

Hunger gnaws at her, every waking minute of the night. She hates it. She fears it. She knows that when it overwhelms her she can’t control herself. She can’t be near Yeza or Luc when she gets like that. The thought terrifies her. She has nightmares of her husband and child dead at her feet. 

Veth runs. The one who made her a monster tries to follow but Veth’s faster, sneakier, smarter. She hides in the day and moves quickly at night. 

Veth is so hungry all the time. She eats rats, snatches pets from backyards and hates herself. It’s not enough. 

Veth finds a man passed out behind a liquor store, reeking of alcohol. He doesn’t even wake up when she drinks from his limp arm. The buzz in her head is pleasant. It takes the edge off. She’s not so hungry anymore. For a moment she can even stop hating herself. 

~*~

One night Veth lurking in an alley after feeding off another drunk, waiting for her head to stop spinning. A man stumbles into the other end of the alley, reeling a woman along with him. He pushes her against the wall. 

Veth watches with mild interest, then intent interest as the man bites the woman’s neck. The woman moans and arches up. The man reaches to cover her mouth. 

“ _Bitte, bitte_ …” he murmurs and make shushing sounds between the drinking. He doesn’t sound happy. He sounds disgusted with himself. 

Veth knows that tone all too well. 

She emerges as the man is gently settling the woman down. The man startles, looking at Veth with fear at first, then confusion. 

Veth hasn’t met any others like her, except the one that turned her. “I’m alone.” She says, unsure what else she can say. 

“So am I.” He says cautiously. 

“Maybe …” Veth muses. “Maybe we don’t have to be?”

He considers her, then nods slowly. “I’m … Caleb.” It doesn’t sound like his real name. 

“I’m … Veth.” She cringes. She should have a fake name, a vampire name like Leech or Carmilla or something. 

“I have a place. It’s safe in the daylight.” Caleb shrugs a shoulder. 

“I’d like to see it.” Veth says. 

~*~

They fall into a routine. They sleep in the day, hunt at night, carefully share their backgrounds with one another. Caleb too was turned against his will, by vampires he fled soon after the process. They haven’t met any others yet, nor do they especially wish to. 

Veth doesn’t name her family but speaks of them. Caleb mentions a girl, and a boy, whom he loved very much, but doesn’t name them either. 

Caleb picks off loners wandering out of clubs or back from late night jobs. Veth prefers drunks from clubs or passed out near dumpsters. Increasingly they hunt together. It feels safer, it feels right, to hunt as a team. 

They get more comfortable with each other. Early on, they slept on opposite sides of the dusty basement beneath the library Caleb found a secret door to. Now they sleep side by side on an ancient fold out couch. 

They get too comfortable. 

~*~ 

The vampire hunting Veth finds them one night. There’s a fight and it goes badly. 

Veth runs and to her surprise, Caleb runs with her. 

They steal a car.

They drive until they see dawn approaching and skulk into a family’s storm shelter. 

“Why did you come with me?” Veth asks him, as they’re starting to feel the heaviness that comes with sunrise. 

“I … I don’t want to be alone anymore.” Caleb says. It sounds like the words took a lot to say. 

Veth leans over and kisses him. 

Just as her fear of messing this up too overwhelms her, Caleb kisses back. 

They fall asleep tangled in each other’s arms. 

Veth can’t go back home, but maybe she can make a new home with Caleb.


End file.
